V (Part 2)

Original Air Date: May 4, 1983
Written and Directed By: Kenneth Johnson
Produced By: Chuck Bowman

The second part of V begins as Mike Donovan arrives in the suburb of San Pedro and finds it is a virtual ghost town. It looks as if a battle took place there — and nobody lived to tell. But there is one survivor among the wreckage. It's Sean Donovan's friend, Josh. He recounts to Mike how some fed-up people bombed a Visitor shuttle. Not long after that, Visitor craft swarmed down from the night sky and troopers rounded up everyone, including Sean and his mother. Mike retrieves the key he previously found on a Visitor shuttle and gave to Sean, thinking it might gain him access to find his son and the others.

Having previously discovered that the Maxwells are hiding in his family's pool house, Daniel Bernstein declares that he will marry Robin Maxwell — he hasn't told her yet, but if she refuses he'll turn in her whole family to the Visitors. Daniel's father intercedes, and the young Bernstein storms off to report the rogue scientist family to his Visitor Friends supervisor, Brian. Later when the Visitor troops arrive, they find the pool house empty. The Maxwells have already been smuggled to a rebel mountain camp with the help of a neighborhood gardner and a sympathetic police officer. The Visitors settle for Daniel's family and take them into custody for questioning.

Mike and Tony Leonetti again attempt to stow away on a Visitor shuttle, but this time they are captured and taken to the Mother Ship as prisoners. Diana is about to send Mike to the "final area" but after some encouragement from Martin she decides to instead convert the troublemaker. While escorting Mike to a holding cell, Martin reveals that not all Visitors agree with what their Leader is doing and promises to help Mike escape. True to his word, a Visitor named Barbara later arrives at Mike's cell on behalf of Martin. Making it look as if he overpowered Barbara and stole her uniform, Mike is able to board a transport and return to Earth.

Meanwhile, Juliet Parrish and her growing group of resistance fighters establish their headquarters in the tunnels of an abandoned water processing plant. Robert and Robin show up, the rest of their family safe at the mountain camp. Mike also shows up — still in Barbara's uniform — as the prisoner of Elias and the Angels gang who thought they had captured a Visitor. The resistance fighters realize who Mike is, and after some initial doubt they decide they can trust him. Mike tells the group what he knows of the Visitors.

Robin wanders away from Resistance headquarters and runs right into a Visitor trooper. She's taken to the Mother Ship, where Diana instructs Brian to seduce the teen as part of an experiment. Back on Earth, Robert goes looking for his missing daughter and also runs into a Visitor patrol. The officer in charge recognizes Robert's last name and realizes his daughter was captured earlier that day. He offers a deal: If Robert reveals the location of the mountain camp where the scientists are hiding, the Visitor will see to it that Robin is returned safely. The Visitor sweetens the deal by assuring Robert that the mountain camp won't be taken until 4 p.m. the next day, which should allow Robert enough time to retrieve his wife and other daughters from the camp. But the catch is that Robert cannot tell anybody, or Robin will be put in danger. With little choice in the matter, Robert provides the necessary information and is released.

Back at Resistance Headquarters, the group makes plans to arm themselves by raiding a local armory the following day. In addition, coordinated attacks at the Richland refinery and elsewhere will provide diversions. At the same time, Mike plans to return to the Mother Ship and learn what happened to the people of San Pedro — and to find his son.

Mike arrives on the Mother Ship easily enough thanks to his Visitor uniform, and soon makes his way to the underbelly of the ship. In one area he discovers a collection of huge storage tanks, each apparently filled with water. He runs into Martin who confirms that the chemicals being manufactured for the Visitors are really a smoke screen to hide the fact that the aliens are stealing Earth's water. They need it for sustenance as well as to power weapons and fusion generators back home. Martin reveals the other secret of the Visitors: In another cavernous area of the ship, thousands upon thousands of Humans are being kept in suspended animation. Some of the captives will be used as canon fodder to battle the Leader's enemy, but the rest are necessary to provide for the other basic shortage on the Visitor home world — food!

Urgent to take his terrifying news back to Earth, Mike heads to the landing bay with a badly-wounded prisoner named Sancho in tow. Martin meets him there with another prisoner who needs to be taken to safety, Robin. With some quick instruction from Martin how to pilot a Skyfighter, Mike and his two freed prisoners zoom out of the landing bay — but they're followed by two more shuttles in pursuit. Sancho mans the rear laser weapon and shoots down one of the shuttles, and some dare-devil flying by Mike results in the other shuttle crashing into a cliff.

Meanwhile, the Resistance attacks commence on schedule as Julie leads a team to raid the National Guard Armory. Robert admits his deal with the Visitor commander to Julie and races off to warn his family in the mountain camp. The raid takes its toll of Resistance casualties, but eventually they have what they came for and make an escape. With the information provided by Robert, the group races to the mountain camp to defend it with their newly-obtained weapons.

But at the mountain camp, it is too late because the Visitors, under Diana's command, have already begin their attack ahead of schedule. The Resistance fighters soon arrive and begin fighting back — they shoot down two Skyfighters with bazookas — but the Visitors inflict much destruction and death. Rushing to help a boy struggling to drag a woman to safety, Julie is caught in the open as a Diana's Skyfighter closes in on the threesome. Defiant, Julie aims her pistol and fires at the oncoming craft (much like the first episode's opening scene in El Salvador). Just as the craft returns for another pass, another Skyfighter — piloted by Donovan — shows up and scores a damaging shot against Diana's shuttle. Diana orders a retreat and the mountain camp is safe for the moment.

In the aftermath of the battle, Robert discovers his wife is dead but his daughters are safe, including Robin who is reunited with her family. Mike tells Julie what he learned on the Mother Ship, and Julie suggests they will have to focus on destroying as many of the huge crafts as possible — risking thousands of lives to save millions or even billions. By the close of the episode, Julie sends a message into space intended for the enemy of the Visitors — hoping it might be an ally for Earth. Their first battle is won, but the war is just beginning . . .

Notes

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